Some of these toys, games and puzzles, displayed in the conference room of Patch Products, Beloit, are among popular items being shipped to retailers and consumers for Christmas.

Lisa Wuennemann

PATCH PRODUCTS

Address: 1400 E. Inman Parkway, Beloit, where its worldwide headquarters, manufacturing and distribution center plus Wymer Distribution Center are located. Its Pennsylvania Smethport Facilities is the birthplace of Wooly Willy magnetic drawings and home to Lauri Toys. Both brands became part of Patch in 2008.

What it does: This family-owned company leads the toy industry in design, manufacturing and marketing of high-quality, award-winning products that enrich lives by providing fun and interaction.

Employees: 68 full-time, one part-time and 13 temporary/seasonal.

History in the community: Brothers Fran and Bryce Patch started a commercial printing company in 1971 in their hometown of Beloit by printing products for other companies. Patch Products was formed in 1985 when it began printing its own fun products. Patch took on the competitive board game market in 1992, and by 1998 Patch expanded beyond games and puzzles by acquiring a foam ball company.

Patch expanded again in the early 2000s by creating activity books, a line of card games and floor puzzles. After successfully entering the world of brand licensing in 2000, Patch has continued to make new relationships and add new licenses to many products. In 2008, Patch acquired Smethport Specialty Co., Pennsylvania, a leading manufacturer of toys and specialty line products, and in 2010 Patch developed a Take 'N' Play Anywhere line that includes magnetic travel games and magnetic activities.

Little-known fact: Patch games can be found in the iTunes app store. The popular Wooly Willy can be found in app form, as well as the dice games Farkle and Word Shout! Patch is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube.

Fascinating facts: Patch has sold more than 109 million puzzles. That's over 1.73 billion puzzle pieces that if laid end-to-end would cross 424,635 football fields and the amount of glue used to make them could fill 77 large backyard pools.

Patch receives more than 300 game/toy idea submissions each year from a variety of sources including independent inventors from professional scuba divers to Hollywood assistant film directors and math teachers to professional inventor groups.

Patch also does game testing in Beloit. Through the help of these people, of all ages, and focus groups, Patch decides what new items its going to introduce that year.

TOWN OF BELOIT—Cases and pallets full of boxed Patch Products merchandise were ready for pick up by trucks that would come and go all day from the loading docks of the locally-owned company's Wymer building on the Inman Parkway campus.

Some were headed for Michigan and Ohio, while others would be sent to Nebraska. But the family-friendly games, puzzles and toys were headed to toy retailers all over the United States and Canada.

At the opposite end of the shipping building, Christian Jamieson scanned, priced and packaged individual consumer orders.

He was among 13 temporary employees working extra hours this time of year in preparation for the holidays, including online Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, said Lisa Wuennemann, marketing director.

"This is our busiest time of year," she said.

Patch Products in July starts shipping products daily for Christmas to a wide variety of chain retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Toys 'R' Us, Kmart and Shopko, but November is its busiest shipping month when chain stores and specialty retail shops are placing re-orders, Wuennemann said.

Shipping Manager Kelli Hedrington agreed: "We've been working 10 hours a day for several weeks and will start working 12-hour days the second week of November," she said.

The shipping, marketing and sales staffs are still working hard on Christmas 2013, but product development and manufacturing employees already are working on the 2014 Christmas line that the sales staff will start selling in November. That's when the marketing team also will develop plans on how to market it, Wuennemann said.

"The first week of December is the last week we can ship orders for products to hit store shelves for Christmas at chain retailers," Wuennemann said.

Shipping employees will continue picking, packing and expediting orders until the week of Dec. 16 so they can reach specialty stores and individual consumers in time for Christmas, she said.

Patch became the exclusive distributor of the 3D maze game Perplexus to independent toy and gift retailers this year. Patch also launched its new Mirari line of specialty preschool toys in 2013. The infant and toddler toys feature classic play with innovative twists, according to Patch's website.

Another new category Patch entered this year was soft collectible dolls. Planet Sock Monkey is a line of sock monkeys infused with personality that are not the sock monkeys your grandparents had when you were a kid. These dolls have attitude, style and humor and became Patch's first line to be available for license.

These newest Patch Products can be found at specialty shops or online but not at chain retail stores, Wuennemann said.

So if you're among those who prefer not to fight Black Friday crowds, you have the option of shopping for any of Patch Products' items online at patchproducts.com.